Ca’ Nova is located in the centre of the medieval village of Brienno on the western shores of Lake Como, just a few miles from the highly sought after towns of Cernobbio and Laglio. The South-facing property is right by the water with unrestricted views over the lake, next to the ancient church of S. Anna and it backs onto the quiet Via Regina, Brienno’s high street.

Ca’ Nova is a newly built beautifully detailed lakeside townhouse carefully designed to fit into the ancient medieval context in which it lies. It has a total area of approximately 400m2 set over 6 floors all served by an internal lift. It contains four double and one single bedroom all with en-suite bathrooms. The top three floors are dedicated to the living areas with a spacious 50 m2 double height reception room taking up an entire floor, a dining room facing onto a loggia overlooking the lake and a kitchen with a separate pantry/utility room.

The property also has, a terraced garden with an small infinity pool, two further balconies, a garage and a separate external parking space and a game room at the lower level with direct access to the lake, that doubles up as storage space for canoes and boating equipment.

The architectural challenge was to create a contemporary house, over multiple storeys with its feet in the lake in a restricted site in the middle of an Italian medieval village. By careful arrangement of rooms, collecting all of the sleeping areas at the quieter lower levels, and placing the more public entrance, living and kitchen/dining areas at the upper levels we have created an ideal arrangement for the family to enjoy. The roof top loggia linked directly to the kitchen and dining room provides stunning views of the lake, and the double height entrance and living room a dramatic experience on arrival.

With elegant materials from a simple palette used through out, a full under-floor heating system, and the use of the lake water for cooling we will achieve the highest sustainability rating in Italy - A+.

View of Ca’ Nova from the Lake

View from the Church square

View of Brienno from the Lake

View of Ca’ Nova from via Regina

Double height living room

Master bedroom

Top floor loggia

Kitchen with link to dining room and loggia

External terrace and infinity pool

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There is a significant Italian contigent at Edward Williams Architects and we were enjoying Rory Olycato's images of the Milan Expo pavillions on twitter. It was fun to see out tweet published in the print edition of the AJ Volume 241 / Issue 17 / 8 May 2015.